Tip for starting seeds indoors...

[Salihah]

My cousin shared this tip with me as I plan to start seeds in our garage once it is a bit warmer, but still too cold to plant outside. (I'm zone 3/4)

I start my seeds in our front porch in march. the tick is lots of air movement otherwise you get spindly little plants that grow tall and then fall over. The air movement causes the plants to sway creating scar tissue in the plant stem making them tough and hardy. Then for a week in May I spend a lot of time hardening them by taking them out side for a few hours then a few more hours the next day until by the end of the week they are out side most of the day and ready to plant in the garden.

I hope that's helpful to some other gardeners, too!

[beesknees]

Great advice! I am just trying to figure out my plan of attack in the garden, this is helpful knowledge. Thanks!!

[Salihah]

Glad it's helpful! I've been gardening for quite awhile and didn't know about the importance of wind movement with seedlings!

[lmonter]

I just set up an oscillating fan to blow on my plants down in the pantry. That works decent, too. Well, and petting them.

I use shop lights for light down there in my basement (I have no good place with natural light that's safe from kids), so I also rotate the pots in their flats so they don't *really* start leaning one way really badly.

Also, an easy/semi-clean way to just water the soil rather than the plant? Your peri bottle from post-partum. I kid you not. Works fabulous, I promise. I keep a pitcher or two of water down there to fill up the peri bottle as I'm sporadically watering.

Don't over-water either. My tomato lady says that's where first-timers usually lose a fair amount of seedlings. She's a fan of letting the plants go a day or three without watering, then watering deeply to get the roots going gangbusters. She's been doing it for years, and makes a killing at the farmer's market.

[JamieBrewHa]

Originally Posted by lmonter

I just set up an oscillating fan to blow on my plants down in the pantry. That works decent, too. Well, and petting them.

I use shop lights for light down there in my basement (I have no good place with natural light that's safe from kids), so I also rotate the pots in their flats so they don't *really* start leaning one way really badly.

Also, an easy/semi-clean way to just water the soil rather than the plant? Your peri bottle from post-partum. I kid you not. Works fabulous, I promise. I keep a pitcher or two of water down there to fill up the peri bottle as I'm sporadically watering.

Don't over-water either. My tomato lady says that's where first-timers usually lose a fair amount of seedlings. She's a fan of letting the plants go a day or three without watering, then watering deeply to get the roots going gangbusters. She's been doing it for years, and makes a killing at the farmer's market.

love the tips as I am brand new. does the fan blow non-stop? on low? how far from the plants?

[lmonter]

Originally Posted by JamieBrewHa

love the tips as I am brand new. does the fan blow non-stop? on low? how far from the plants?

I just have the fan plugged into our power strip that's on a timer down there. So the lights and fan all turn on and off consistently. I forget whether we start at 8 hours a day or 12 hours a day, working up to 16 hours a day and then I start hardening off outside.

I think I had the fan on low or medium (don't want to kill the stems, that's not good at all!), and it was just a goofy old 12" oscillating fan that I had perched precariously on top of a box on top of a folding chair. I kinda make things up like that so I don't need to buy stuff sometimes.